The most important fishing industry of
the medieval Mediterranean was, arguably, in Sicily, and even there
fish played a modest albeit constant role in the food of the island.
There were two kinds of fish caught in the fifteenth century, the
so-called blue fish, mostly sardines and anchovies that had some
limited economic importance in Sicily's export trade, and the white
fish, such as John Dory, turbot, sea bass, grouper, comber, etc.,
which were secondary in economic importance. However, fish had no
overall importance in either the diet or the economy of medieval
Sicily and the total number of fishermen was few. But the fasting
prescriptions of the church assured that fish would always be in
demand. In data for the vice-regent from 1415 we see that fresh
and dried fish were bought ten days out of the month. On Friday
and Saturday, fresh fish, eel, salted little tuna, and eggs were
eaten instead of meat.

Messina, Cefalý, Termini, Trapani,
and Palermo were the five fishing centers of Sicily in the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries, all fishing sardines for the most part.
Fish were in seasonal demand and especially during Lent, when church-mandated
fasting requirements limited the amount of meat that could be eaten.
During the winter, the fishing industry was involved in salting
sardines and, especially, tonnina (little tuna, Euthynnus alletteratus).

The fishermen encircled the shoals of
fish with their seine nets and unloaded their catch directly onto
the beach. The fish were processed for salting, a small amount perhaps
set aside for local cooks of these coastal villages, while the fishermen
victualed their boats with bread and wine. Villages of the interior
ate freshwater fish from local rivers and streams or eels from the
Simeto River near Paterno. In the twelfth century eels were caught
in a complicated device called a tarusi, consisting of a series
of chambers whereby the eel is unable to turn around and get out.

Palermo was the most important of the
five fishing towns in medieval Sicily, and in the fourteenth century
the fishermen lived in an area of the city near the sea called the
Kalsa. A fisherman's life was a poor and hard one. The Kalsa still
exists and even today one finds fishermen, smugglers, and mafiosi
(so they say) living there. It was in Palermo where the net- makers
were and where most of the fishermen could be recruited.

Fishing zones were well demarcated and
the fishing of sardines from Termini was the economically most important
fishing activity. The zone off Trapani was rich in fish, and we
know that agents for the royal kitchen of the Angevin King in Naples,
Charles d'Anjou, came here in 1270 to buy dacteri (flying fish?)
and cervige (amberjack?). The zone off Messina was known for its
swordfish and it still is.

Fish were also caught in more rudimentary
ways using traditional techniques that go back to the Arab era and
earlier. Usually this meant two men in a boat with a net. The Arab
influence on Sicilian fishing and nautical affairs in general is
attested to by the Sicilian fishing and nautical vocabulary which
is thoroughly rooted in the Arabic language. Take, for instance,
the Sicilian word xabica, the big fishing net that is attached to
shore and moved seaward in a great sweeping swath by a bark, a small
sailing ship.

(Illustration by Reiner Musterbuck, about 1200 AD)

The word derives from the Arabic word shabaka, meaning
"net." But as some scholars have pointed out, the interplay among
Arabo-Berber, Italo-Siculo, Arab, and Turkish cultures was complex
enough to find influence a constant two- and even three- way street
in the Mediterranean Sea when it comes to nautical matters.

There were fishermen who used another kind
of net called a spiruni which was very thin and expensive to purchase.
The archdeacon of Cefalý bought three of these nets in 1431.
They had eighteen stitchings and cost as much as a ton of fresh
fish. Other kinds of nets were the rizza, a bit bigger and made
of plaited grass cording, used for larger fish. The nassa was a
complicated device used for catching eels or lobster and those fishermen
who used them were called nassaroli.

The business of fishing in Sicily was already
an ancient profession and well organized by the fifteenth century. But
fishing comprised a whole ensemble of activities that went far beyond fishing.
There were instrument makers, cordage makers, fishing zone administrators,
packers, haulers, net makers, and salters, as well as the fishermen. Curiously,
at the end of the fourteenth century and into the fifteenth century many
fishermen came from the tiny island of Lipari off Sicily's north coast.